At the request of his children, London architect Alex Michaelis installed a slide next to the staircase in their new eco-friendly dream home.

Here we see on of his children throwing caution to the wind and diving head first down the slide. But it's not just the kids having fun:

"We tend to have a lot of the kids' friends around-they're here perhaps more than at some of the other parents' homes," Michaelis says, adding that even grown-ups can't resist skipping the stairs. "We've been known after a big dinner party to use the slide."